Dictionary

second language en · NOUN

Meanings

1. A language that is spoken by someone but is not their mother tongue.
   • Vocabulary is a vital component of educational success in both first and second language contexts. 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 105:
   • My second languages are Italian and German.
   • Malay is the lingua franca of several Southeast Asia countries and has been simplified by its use as a second language by non-native speakers. For example, the Malay plural is formed by repeating a word twice – buku means book and buku-buku means books. 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2022:

Forms

Deriveds

second-language acquisition

Relateds

first language · foreign language

Translations (14)

fr seconde langue (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · gl segunda lingua (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · cmn 外語 /外语 (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · id bahasa kedua (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · cmn 第二語言 /第二语言 (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · sma mubpien-gïele (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · pt segunda língua (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · fi toinen kieli (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · sv andraspråk (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · nb andrespråk (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · fi muu kieli (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · ka მეორე ენა (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · nn andrespråk (language spoken other than the mother tongue) · de Zweitsprache (language spoken other than the mother tongue)